Several examples of electrical devices or connectors of the type to which the present invention relates are those sometimes referred to as cable terminations, cable termination assemblies, headers, jumpers, and edge board connectors. The foregoing are not intended to limit the devices which may incorporate principles of the invention; rather they are mentioned for convenience to facilitate the following description. Nevertheless, it will be appreciated that the features and principles of the invention may be included in other devices intended for electrical connection purposes.
A cable termination may be defined as an electrical connector intended to connect the conductor(s) of an electrical cable to one or more further electrically conductive members. An exemplary cable termination may include one or more electrically conductive members, for example, electrical contacts, and a support or housing for supporting such contacts for the intended electrical connection purpose. A cable termination assembly may be defined as a cable termination in combination with the electrical cable intended to be terminated, i.e., the conductor(s) of such cable is (are) intended to be connected to further members via the contact(s) of the cable termination of such assembly.
There are various types of electrical contacts. Conventionally, electrical contacts are categorized in at least two groups, male type, such as pin contacts, and female type, such as fork contacts. For example, a pin contact may be inserted between the tines of a fork contact to engage the same thereby to create an electrical connection of the contacts. A box contact is another example of a female contact. A leaf type contact and a bow type contact in which a portion of the respective contact tends to deform, preferably resiliently, as another member, such as a pin contact, is placed to engagement therewith, also have a similar characteristic to the fork and box contacts in that such deformation occurs during engagement with a further member in use of the contact. For convenience of the following description, reference to female contacts is intended to mean a contact that has at least one part thereof that is intended to deform, or deflect or displace, from one condition to another during use of the contact. Indeed, such deformation preferably is of the resilient type whereby the contact ordinarily is in a rest, unstressed (or preloaded with relatively low stress), or undeformed condition, mode or shape, and in response to the placing of a further member, such as a pin contact, to engagement therewith, the female contact would tend to undergo some resilient deformation to a stressed, deformed, contacting condition. Preferably, the resiliency characteristic is a function of the contact itself, although such characteristic may be achieved by other means such as a separate spring or spring-like element acting on the contact.
A header typically is an electrical connector device of a type that has contacts held with respect to a molded body; the contacts are intended to connect circuits on a printed circuit board and further conductors or circuits that are not on such printed circuit board. Often a header is attached, mounted, soldered or otherwise associated with a printed circuit board. A jumper is a device that usually is employed to interconnect at least two electrical circuits, for example, by engaging with and electrically connecting two pin contacts. Often a jumper is used to interconnect (or not, e.g., by removal of the jumper) selected circuits on a printed circuit board, say to identify certain characteristics of the printed circuit board, such as memory size, starting address, etc. An edge board connector, for example, is a connector that may be connected to printed circuit terminal pads or the like at or proximate the edge of a printed circuit board. In an exemplary case, an edge board connector may be a particular type of cable termination assembly intended to connect with such terminal pads on a printed circuit board. Another type of edge board connector is one which is mounted on one printed circuit board, and having contacts that are electrically connected to printed circuits on that printed circuit board and are electrically connectable to terminal pads of another printed circuit board to facilitate so called mother board-daughter board arrangements.
The foregoing descriptions and definitions are presented by way of example to facilitate the following detailed description of the invention. However, it is intended that such foregoing descriptions and definitions are not intended to limit the invention or the types of devices to and in which the principles and features of the invention may be applied.
In many prior electrical connector devices it generally has been the case that multiple parts have to be assembled and mechanically, adhesively, etc. held together. One example is the cable termination assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,799. A cable termination assembly as disclosed in said patent includes a multiconductor electrical cable having plural parallel conductors separated from each other in the cable insulation, plural electrical contacts respectively electrically connected to cable conductors, and a body molded about and to at least part of the conductors and contacts, including the junctions thereof, to form therewith an integral structure. The contacts are of the fork type. Further, such cable termination assembly includes a cover or cap that has a plurality of cells or chambers therein for containing the tines or arms of respective fork contacts, for guiding pin contacts to engagement with the respective tines, and for permitting resilient deformation of the tines during insertion and/or removal of respective pin contacts. Such cover is molded in a separate process and must be secured, e.g., by ultrasonic welding, to the molded body to form what may be called a composite integral body. It however would be desirable to mold the body and the cover in a single process to form a singular integral structure, and the present invention provides for this, as is described in further detail below.
Various other electrical connection devices, such as jumpers as well as cable terminations other than those of the type disclosed in said patent, require the assembling of multiple parts, including the inserting or assembling of the electrical contact(s) with respect to a housing, cover, cap, body, or other support that holds the contact(s) in position for use in performing electrical connection functions. Such covers, for example, and/or other parts of the device(s) usually are molded to provide adequate space within chambers thereof to accommodate the resilient deformation of the contact(s) during insertion and withdrawal of another member with respect thereto.
Although headers previously have been molded as integral structures formed by a molded body containing plural contacts, the contacts were pin contacts. To use female contacts in a header, edge board connector, or the like, it was necessary in the past separately to assemble plural molded parts to make the device.